Tinubu is a well-known tax collector, says SDP’s Adewole Adebayo

Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Barrister Adewole Adebayo, has described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a “well-known tax collector,” noting that while his approach is not ideal, it represents an improvement on Nigeria’s past fiscal disorder.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Adebayo said Tinubu’s reputation for aggressive revenue generation began in Lagos and has now been extended to the federal level.

“Everybody knows that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a well-known tax collector. But that tax collection is an improvement over a disorganized system he met on ground. He did tax collection in Lagos and he came to do tax collection in Abuja. The problem with Hon. Dogara’s speech is that he is overstating it. This reform is not the best but is far better than what we had,” he said.

Adebayo, however, acknowledged that the president has made some progress in stabilising the Nigerian economy, though he questioned whether Tinubu has fully diagnosed its underlying challenges.

“It’s obvious that the economy President Buhari left was poorly managed, like an emergency room patient. What President Tinubu has done is to stabilise the patient, but I’m not sure that he has managed to know the ailment. So the patient is not going to die imminently, but he hasn’t found a cure,” he said.

According to him, some of Tinubu’s policy choices have aggravated the situation, but there have also been gains in certain sectors. “Over time, he appears to have one or two wins in two sectors, which is why it appears that they might be deceived into thinking that the patient is on his road to recovery,” Adebayo added.